One of Buddy

Buddy was a pretty good sport with all the kids in the house. Bonk would have made himself scarce but more than once Buddy ventured into the room filled with kids. He is quite lazy here these cold snowy days. Thought I would share a picture of him in his new favorite chair.

Sibling Day!

While I was driving the Stewarts to the airport Jessica went to school with Justin. Jessica had no school that day so Justin's school invited the older siblings to spend the day. Both kids love this day. Here is a pic I took from the school website.

The Stewart visit

Kathy's kids arrived with a checklist of thing they wanted to do- all the snow things they have read about in books. We did our best to meet all the requirements. First up was sledding. I believe the below picture gives you a good idea of Marc's sled run creation. The first big snowstorm, for us this year it was the foot of snow we received the Friday before Christmas, Marc snowblows a HUGE pile of snow. In the past he has done this in the backyard but because of the new septic digging up our entire yard he decided it was best try it out in the front yard this year. This huge pile is the starting gate- high enough that it will give them a good start. Then he lovingly creates a very fun run. On this one they bank twice before coming to the end (bank #1 stops them from heading into pricker bushes and our house). At night after grooming his run Marc will often poor buckets on water in order to ice it up so they go fast and to protect the integrity of the slide. This is Rebecca heading into bank #1- Kathy told her "smile for the camera" and she did the whole way down.

Here's how it works. You get on your saucer, tuck your feet in and get someone to push you- go Justin!

Then you scream as you go down- not mandatory but definitely a common occurence.

Here is Kathy on Friday trying to calm Rebecca's fears before one of her first runs.

Mimi came up on Friday to visit and she couldn't stand it, she had to give the run a try too.

Look! She survived!
After this particular run Rebecca got up and yelled- AWESOME!




Also on the list was throwing a snowball- check.

Making a snow angel- check!

The last thing on the list was catch snowflakes on their tongues. It did snow while they were here and I think they did this but I don't have a pictures. Grandma Sara and Grandmommy stopped by on Saturday for a visit too.
Do you know what Kathy and I did most of the weekend? This puzzle. I actually gave this 1,000 piece puzzle to Jessica for Christmas- not sure what I was thinking. She isn't even a real puzzle kid. Do you know who is a puzzle person? Kathy! So she and I sat over the puzzle visiting for most of the weekend. Kids came running past occasionally- they knew where to find us if they needed us and we finished it before she left!

Kathy had brought Webkinz for each child as an in case of emergency option, but we never had to pull it out. So the last night she gave all the kids their webkinz. They were so excited they decided to line up all the Webkinz they own on the steps.
By Tuesday morning the visit was over but everyone agreed it was the best visit we have had.

P.S. Kristin, Kathy did not have to purchase any snow stuff. Since my kids are older when they outgrow their winter clothes I keep them until Kathy's kids have outgrown them too. That way when they do come for a visit they don't have to worry about "the stuff". I did borrow a pair of boots for Kathy from a friend- thanks Jenn!

P.P.S. I was giving Kathy a hard time for not updating her blog. She believe I am one of the few people that actually reads her blog. I told her I thought some of my blog peeps checked her out occasionally too. If you do read Kathy's blog- leave her some love in her comments section next time- Gainesville Stewart News

As a comparison...

Many of you have mentioned the similarities between Jessica and Rebecca and Kathy and I. Thought it might be fun to put this up. This was taken 2 years ago in Florida. This was taken with my "old" lens- woo baby glad I don't use this one anymore- tried to sharpen it up a little. I think it is funny that we are in the same exact pose.

A few more from our photo session

Yes I do have pictures of the Floridians outside in the snow, but I just haven't quite gotten to all of those yet. So here are a few more from our cousin mini session. I left this one in color because I think the pink gives them a nice look.
Total cuties!
Long after the others had tired and moved on Rebecca was quite happy to sit and pose some more- here is just one.
And for your enjoyment an idea of just how poorly coordinated the gang was- next time we will plan better.
Oh all right, I will share one snow picture. This is my favorite of Kathy and the kids on the their first day. They are on top of the saucer run that Marc has created in the front yard- more pics from this later.

Just one for now...

I know a couple of you are clamoring for pictures of our long weekend visit with my sister and her kids. I have finally uploaded the pictures off the card but haven't yet begun to edit the pictures. In short we had a wonderful weekend. The kids loved playing with their cousins. Since we only get all 4 together once MAYBE twice a year it is hard to get a group shot of the kids together. They are just so excited to play with each other. Well we made a concerted effort this time and the kids were pretty cooperative. We didn't even try to coordinate their outfits so I believe these pictures are best in B&W for that reason. Here they are the four Singer (my maiden name) cousins- from left to right and in order of age- Jessica, Rebecca, Justin and Ryan. I promise more from our visit soon.

Ta Dah!

You have asked about the closet and the project is mostly done! So I thought I would share the before and almost after pictures- there is still some work to be done. Here is the bedroom (ok, truth time this is the pic that was on the website when the house was on the market- doesn't exactly look like this on a daily basis).

Before:
After: (ahhh a closet in my bedroom, haven't had that for 5.5 years!)

Family Room Before:
After: Woo Hoo!
Still to be done:

• Marc is going to wire everything through the closet so we will not have all those wires hanging down.
• Carpet to be ripped out in both rooms. There are hardwoods in the bedroom but they aren't in great shape, so we are probably going to have them re-done. As lovely as the pink and green linoleum is under the carpet in the family room I believe we will just put in new carpet.
• We need to get that big ol entertainment center out of there but it is too heavy for Marc and I to move it. Dee might want it but she needs to recruit all the strong people she knows and a truck- go Dee!

I have to admit that I was skeptical about the closet project. I was inclined to go the cheap and easy way out and just install the closet on the interior of our room- but Marc was convinced this was going to be the right solution. In the end I really like the end result. I think Tom and Dave did a great job and the built-ins look great and totally fit in like they have been there the whole time. So happy! Marc was in heaven watching the playoffs yesterday in HD.

Build A Bear!

Dee, the queen of the experience gifts, came through again. For Christmas she gave Justin a gift card to Build-A-Bear and today was the day they went. Dee admits to not be very impressed, but Justin enjoyed it very much. Dee gave him the choice of going out to eat or going back to her house for leftover spaghetti (but he says it like gezpetty)- when she confirmed that she had shake cheese, he chose the leftovers. They spent the afternoon at her house and had a great time.

This is from Dee's email that included these pictures: Took Justin to Build a Bear this afternoon. He was very cute! "My name is Justin. This is Dee. She is not my mommy but I am hanging out with her today." ...that is what he said to all the helpers at Build a Bear...very funny! I did not bring my camera with me as I don't have that photographer gene but got a few back at my place. We played games all afternoon. Grandmommy - Justin may try and hit you up for a Build a bear day because "Grandmommy does fun things with us like this and if she took us to Build a Bear I would have two bears." I tried to tell him one bear is plenty but I think he had a plan brewing! Enjoy!




Jessica loved her gift so much last year, an afternoon at the beading store, that Dee gave her that again for this year. Jessica is itching to go, so in the next few weeks I think we will see those pics....

Blog Contest

I am running on contest on my other blog- so go over and vote! My Pics and More

Christmas in Virginia

The day after Christmas we headed down to VA for Christmas #3. Aunt Sheri was concerned the kids wouldn't enjoy Xmas in VA as much as in the past since the big stuff already occurred at home. So they decided to hide the kids presents around the house and give them a treasure map to find the 6 presents. Here is Jessica's face when she realized that there were no presents for her under the tree. Oh, poor Jessica.
Here is Aunt Sheri explaining the plan with the maps. The stars indicate where the presents are hidden (oh and that is Aunt Meg hamming it up for the camera).

Justin got very into the treasure hunt. In fact later in the week after we got home he hid my slippers and he and Jessica made a map for me to find them. Here is Justin whizzing by after locating a present. He dropped it off and then went in search of his next one.

Here are the Christmas elves, both hamming it up. Took this picture 3x before I got one where neither of them looked goofy- unfortunately it is a little out of focus.

Here is Grandma coming to steal one of Jessica's presents back from her- her attempt was unsuccessful.
And that dear folks is when I put down my camera and never picked it up again until it was time to leave. Oh well.

And so this is Christmas...

In our family you can't open your presents until after breakfast. You are allowed to enjoy your stocking presents as soon as you wake up but you have to wait to open presents. Well the kids got up at 6:45 am to see their Stocking/ Santa gifts but were having so much fun with those gifts that we didn't even get to breakfast until 9:30. And of course breakfast was Chocolate Cake! um unless you are Justin and you don't really like cake (seriously? how is this kid related to me?) and you choose to eat Cheerios instead. Don't feel too sorry for him he ate almost every piece of candy in his stocking before he even got to the breakfast table. Then we went on to the present opening. Here is Jessica opening one of her first gifts- the Orca webkinz that she really wanted!

On Christmas Eve Jessica wrote a poem for Marc and put it under the tree. Here he is opening it up and reading it.

I am going to take a minute and brag a little about my kids. I don't think I do it very much so indulge me. I have to say they were truly a joy to give to this year. They were genuinely thrilled with every gift they opened, no exceptions, clothes/ toys/ books, everything elicited a squeal and a thank you. They took turns opening their joint presents. Jessica finished first- she is a little quicker- but she just dug in to enjoy her presents. I told Justin that for Christmas I wanted a whole day with no whining or fighting. Justin tried to set me straight that Santa can't put that in a stocking. He tried to let me know that my plan wasn't going happen. Well he was wrong.

It isn't just receiving they love giving too. They bought presents for each other and were so excited to see the other one open their present. Jessica bought Marc and I presents through her school. She came home with wrapped presents at the beginning of the month and kept it secret the entire month- unbelievable. She gave me a beautiful golden horned reindeer, because I like beautiful things. She gave Marc a light up Snowman sculpture because he likes to create snow sculptures in winter. One of the presents they were really excited about was each getting their own wipe board and markers. The first thing Jessica did was write a Thank you message on hers.

Jessica was in love with the DS and Justin got a new gameboy game, so after the presents were opened they settled in to playing. (Marc snuck off to take his annual Christmas nap.)
Later they moved venues and continued to play. I told Jessica since it was Christmas it was an unlimited screen time day- this prompted her to say more than once, "this is the best day EVER!". At one time late in the day I realized the house was VERY quiet. So I went in search of my family. Marc was in the recliner on the laptop playing a game and Jessica and Justin were side by side on the couch with a blanket over their laps each playing on their video games. Too funny.

Here they are during one of their gaming breaks- hiding in the TeePee the Hartzogs gave Justin playing with their new Webkinz.
It was a great day. Very fun. Very relaxing- exactly the Christmas I was hoping to have- a very kid centered day. I just might agree with Jessica Best Christmas EVER!

Christmas Eve

About time I updated, huh? I am trying some new photo upload stuff so bare with me while I figure it out-[random photographer sidenote: pretty sure I have to figure out how to better sharpen these pictures but I might play with better pictures first]. First up Christmas Eve. The kids spent the entire day in jammies- both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day- woo hoo. Our afternoon project was decorating our chocolate cake breakfast.

Before bed, and before we put on our nighttime jammies but while we were still in our daytime jammies, we went outside to spread the Reindeer Chow Justin got at school.
Here is a totally bad picture of them- but they are cute!
We came inside and admired our tree...
Then, taking a page from Becky's book, we put on our matchy jammies. The kids loved them and I have to say they looked so cute.

They were very excited- no surprise there. We moved Justin into Jessica's room so that they could have a sleepover together. We went up to bed early- they insisted. We told them they could talk and read a little. As we left we heard Justin saying, "Turn out the light Jessica!" Marc went up at 8:15 and they were both passed out cold- couldn't believe it.

After Santa came I snuck out and took a few pictures of the loot. Here is Jessica's stocking stuff.
The final present total...
The BIG gift, that Jessica asked for over and over. She was thrilled- can you read the note from Santa? It tells them that even though they both wanted a DS there was only one left on the sleigh, so they have to share it.

Here are Justin's Santa presents. Silly Santa, it seems when he bid on the Rescue Hero items on Ebay he forgot to check the dimensions of these toys AND he bid on two different things at the same time and accidentally acquired them both. Um, yeah this means we have two HUGE rescue hero items. Justin was very excited.

One last pictures before I slipped back in bed :)
I will post Christmas morning pictures next.